Just as Americans start to hit the road for the holidays, the average price of gasoline at the pump has dropped below $2 a gallon for the first time in more than six years as the global oil supply continues to surge.

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The average pump price fell to $1.999 a gallon Saturday, according to data from GasBuddy Organization, a price tracker based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. That compares with an average price of $2.11 a month ago and $2.44 one year ago. In Texas, the average price for regular was $1.80, down from $1.89 a month ago and $2.21 a year ago. In San Antonio, it was even lower: $1.75, compared with $1.89 a month ago and $2.23 a year ago.

Low oil prices tied to overproduction and to lower seasonal demand are “the main catalyst” for the decline, said Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. “America is the world’s largest oil consumer, and in the winter months, demand is reduced.”

Consumers are benefiting from a 68 percent drop in West Texas Intermediate crude over the past 18 months. That has boosted refiners’ profit margins, encouraging them to produce record amounts of fuel. Prices are poised to remain lower into next year after the OPEC refused to limit its output. WTI dropped to $34.73 a barrel Friday, the lowest since February 2009.

U.S. refineries produced 9.83 million barrels a day of the motor fuel in November, 2.3 percent higher than a year earlier, the American Petroleum Institute said Thursday.

Americans have saved about $100 billion on fuel this year, which comes to more than $350 a person, according to Michael Green, a spokesman in Washington for AAA. The drop in gasoline prices has coincided with an increase in demand, which is the highest for this time of year since 2007, Energy Information Administration data show.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a combination of low prices at the pump and a healthy economy,” DeHaan observed. “The last time that occurred was back in 2005.”